


Lending a Hand

by BackwoodsNecromancer



Category: Don't Starve - Fandom, Don't Starve Together - Fandom
Genre: Gen, we love a creepy table that follows us through the woods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 01:06:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17294759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BackwoodsNecromancer/pseuds/BackwoodsNecromancer
Summary: Bernie would have never left Willow behind, and she knew that. She'd vowed to never leave him behind as well, and always did her best to hold up to that promise. If he could speak, Willow was sure he'd have made that exact same vow- and if he could speak, Bernie would've yelled something like "Hey! Willow! You're leaving me behind!" and she wouldn't be in this situation.





	Lending a Hand

**Author's Note:**

> don't starve secret santa gift for @the-wanderer-willow on tumblr! happy holidays!

Bernie would have never left Willow behind, and she knew that. She'd vowed to never leave him behind as well, and always did her best to hold up to that promise. If he could speak, Willow was sure he'd have made that exact same vow- and if he could speak, Bernie would've yelled something like "Hey! Willow! You're leaving me behind!" and she wouldn't be in this situation.

"Bernie! Berrrrnieeee!"

The empty night sky swallowed her voice hungrily. The dark always seemed to have a weight to it, and now it pressed in all around Willow like an ocean of tar. Her torch made a shrinking bubble of light around her, a shield that kept whatever lurked in the dark at bay even as it faded. In addition to a ward, her torch was also playing the part of a searchlight. The tall pine trees watched her trudge through the forest impassively, deciding as one not to aid her any in the quest for finding her best friend.

"Bernie! Come on!" Willow stamped her foot, but this new tactic didn't seem to help any more than yelling did. She knew it wasn't smart to just shout into the dark, but the darker it got out the more frustrated she became. She decided to apologize once she found Bernie; _I wasn't mad at you,_ she'd say, _just worried. I didn't mean to yell like that._

Willow didn't remember where exactly in the forest she'd been foraging. Even if she did, all the trees were identical in the dark and there was almost nothing else to help her find where she'd put Bernie down. She wanted to set one on fire to save some of her own light and to give her a better view of her surroundings- trees burnt well, she knew that from experience, and if it happened to spread to one or two more trees, who cared? The place was full of trees, it wouldn't miss a couple. And it would be easier to find her bear without all the trees in the way, too! Nobody ever lost anything in a completely flat expanse of scorched grass, she reasoned.

She was eyeing a particularly flammable-looking evergreen when she thought she heard something in the brush behind her. Willow turned sharply, holding out the torch, but nothing came bursting out of the branches toward her. After a moment of standing still there and waiting, her heart resumed beating and she turned back the way she was headed. Willow reached around to her backpack and pulled out her lighter, holding it tight in her free hand. Her thumb began to flick its arm up and down, producing a small and consistent _click, click, click._ She wanted to find Bernie and get out, back to her bigger fire.

The next few paces revealed to her nothing but more trees, or maybe it was the same tree and there were hundreds of it and this entire forest had been made just to make her get lost in it at night. She wouldn't be surprised- nothing was all that surprising anymore, not really.

Even so, when she heard something behind her again Willow began to walk faster. She didn't want to deal with fighting some monster and losing Bernie all in the same night. Whatever it was could wait until she found him, and then she'd kill it. She held her light up and pressed on through the evergreens. The sound of her pursuer persisted, however, and as it grew nearer she heard some strange accompaniment; a sound almost like someone picking notes out on a piano, or plucking harpstrings softly.

She didn't like it. Her fingernails dug into her palm around her lighter and she kept going. Whatever was behind her kept on as well, and soon she was all but running through the forest with the creature tinkling threateningly after. Willow didn't stop until her torch sputtered out and the night crushed in, overtaking her.

Willow's first cry was one of alarm at her torch having died. She fumbled with her lighter for one second so terrifying she didn't realize she wasn't breathing, nor that it had gone quiet. Once its orange flame had emerged, she didn't even have time to be relieved before screaming a short, high-pitched scream.

There was a table in the middle of the woods with her. It had a little glass vase on top of it with a flower inside.

"What the hell?" She said, drawing nearer. Only then did she notice the thing sitting up on the table, slumped up comfortably against the vase. "Bernie!"

She reached out and snatched the bear from his spot on top of the table and clutched him. "What happened? Where did you go? What is this?"

Willow held her lighter out toward the end table again and flinched back; she was sure she'd seen the deep crimson skirt it was wearing rustle, but then again... It was late, and the way her lighter flickered could have been playing tricks with her eyes. Very funny, fire.

"Creepy." Willow said. But she refused to think about it. Instead, she turned away from it and started off, sparing a look at Bernie to make sure he wasn't hurt- or, well, not any more hurt than he'd been when she left him. She raised her head when she heard the sound again- the gentle little series of notes that called to mind an old music box.

She whipped around and saw the end table there, just a few feet behind her, almost completely still. Almost. As if to just make sure of things in her mind, Willow jogged a few more feet away and turned back in time to see something beneath the table propping it up and scurrying forward toward her. But it didn't do anything- only followed.

"Cut it out." She said.

There was no response.

"Seriously, stop." She added, after taking two steps and hearing the table follow.

It didn't.

"What is your deal?!" She stomped back up to it and thrust her lighter out against the length of red fabric draped over the table. It caught within a few moments, but before she could even feel a shred of satisfaction from burning it a hand whirled up from underneath and put it out. So she tried again. She got the same response- a shadowy hand snuffing it out before it even spread any. Willow was about to try a third time when her eyes caught on the glow of her lighter and she hesitated.

"You like the fire?" She asked. There was no response, of course, but whenever she moved away the end table followed, scarlet skirt rustling in an invisible breeze. It really did sound like a music box, albeit an old one.

"I think she likes fire too, Bernie." Willow said. She studied the single flower in the vase on top of it and smiled. It was a red rose, and a strange gladness for not choosing to burn that instead came upon her. It looked a little silly with only one inside, though. She put Bernie up next to it again and furrowed her brow in thought. Well, if it brought Bernie back to her and it liked fire...

"Okay, you can follow me. I've got a better fire at camp anyway."


End file.
